Steve Jobs announced Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” during his World Wide Developers Conference keynote presentation yesterday.
Jobs made the announcement early in his presentation, before breaking the news that Apple would switch from IBM and Freescale PowerPC to Intel x86 processors.
According to Jobs, Leopard is due late 2006 / early 2007. This would put Leopard on track to debut right around Microsoft’s currently-stated, oft-slippng, stripped-down Longhorn release date. Yum, steak!
The release of Leopard in late 2006 / early 2007 would come during Apple’s transition to Intel processors in their Mac lines, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007.
[UPDATE, 11:57am EDT: Clarified Leopard release timeframe.]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple posts QuickTime video of Steve Jobs’ WWDC 2005 Keynote Address online – June 07, 2005
Report: Microsoft’s ‘Longhorn’ release slipping into mid-2007 – June 03, 2005
PC World names Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘Best Operating System’ – June 01, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘is the most advanced operating system on the planet’ – May 31, 2005
Wait over a year for Windows Longhorn to buy a new PC or buy a new Mac with Mac OS X Tiger today? – May 27, 2005
TrustedReviews: After using Mac OS X Tiger ‘going back to Windows XP is something of a joke at best’ – May 18, 2005
The Butler Group: ‘Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger the best desktop operating system in the world to date’ – May 13, 2005
BBC News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘the most stable and reliable OS, well ahead of Windows XP’ – May 10, 2005
Windows users show strong curiosity about Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Windows tech writer Thurrott: ‘In many ways, Mac OS X Tiger is simply better than Windows’ – May 07, 2005
EarthWeb: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is a ‘serious enterprise operating system, a pivotal release’ – May 06, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system’ – May 06, 2005
The Guardian: Mac OS X Tiger a powerful solution while Microsoft’s Longhorn remains on drawing board – May 06, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times: Mac OS X Tiger shows ‘there’s never been a more compelling time to switch to Mac’ – May 05, 2005
Dan Gillmor: ‘With Mac OS X Tiger, Apple is plainly in the lead today’ – May 05, 2005
Jupiter Research VP: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘runs rings around Microsoft Windows’ – May 04, 2005
The Independent: Apple’s ‘faster, smarter, simpler’ Mac OS X Tiger ‘a must-have’ – May 04, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger review for a Windows PC audience finds Tiger’s ‘far, far better than Windows XP’ – May 03, 2005
Boston Herald: Mac OS X Tiger should compel Windows PC users to think about switching to Apple Mac – May 02, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger will likely improve performance of your Macintosh – April 30, 2005
PC World review gives Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger 4.5 stars out of 5 – April 30, 2005
Ars Technica: Mac OS X Tiger ‘at least twice as significant as any single past update’ – April 28, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system around’ – April 28, 2005
Associated Press: Mac OS X Tiger ‘provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows’ – April 28, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s Tiger ‘the best, most advanced personal computer operating system on the market’ – April 28, 2005
InformationWeek columnist: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘a compelling upgrade’ – April 28, 2005
NY Times: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is the most secure, stable and satisfying OS on earth – April 28, 2005
Wired News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘full of welcome surprises’ – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: ‘Longhorn is in complete disarray and in danger of collapsing under its own weight’ – April 27, 2005
Wired News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘full of welcome surprises’ – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn ‘has the makings of a train wreck’ – April 26, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn demos ‘unimpressive, fall short of graphical excellence found today in Mac OS X’ – April 26, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action – April 13, 2005
Ketchup anyone?
I prefer A1
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Is this serious? A new version of the operating system every year?
This rate of change is too rapid. People will stop purchasing if they think that whatever it is they’re buying is going to be out of date in a short period of time.
I was hoping Steve would give some more details about this release, as is customary at these meccas, but it seems like he got distracted by x86. I was also expecting an announcement for the release of iTunes 4.9 after he went on about podcasting. Oh well, I will have to wait.
I’m not saying this will happen.
In fact, I really hope it *doesn’t*
But if – what if – Leopard did run on regular everyday PCs… Releasing it just before Longhorn would be a really bold crazy move that would totally be a punch in the gut to Microsoft.
Hehe
Like I said, I doubt it will happen and I think it would be bad for OS X to run on any old PC… but, its an interesting idea lol
Keep in mind you never have to upgrade to the newest version. Apple makes a load of cash off of selling its upgrades, and hope you do, but don’t require it. You can easily skip every second or third update and still run most apps!
This is great, now all the Longhorn comparisons can be made against Leopard! wee!
Gog – Not strictly every year, every 18 months. Still maybe too short a gap but better than too big of one, plus you don’t have to upgrade. Also they’d really be missing a trick if they didn’t try and steal whatever thunder Microsoft could get with Longhorn.
i wonder if they even have any new features planned yet? or are they saying this just to get the word out early…and i doubt this will be a full-fledged, $129 upgrade. this will probably be a smaller $79 upgrade or something…just SOMEthing so apple won’t look “outdated” with tiger.
mw “expect”….how fitting
It’s been announced for 2006 -OR- 2007.
In other words, when it comes out in 2007, it’s not LATE.
Longhorn IS late–again–if it comes out in 2007.
>I prefer A1 >
Try HP.
I know it’s early in the northern hemisphere but yesterday half the posts predicted the end of the world and questioned Job’s sanity. Where are these people now?
To me Apple’s CEO is making good business decisions. Microsoft’s bleeding and now’s the time to take the battle to Redmond’s ramparts. If Apple can take ten per cent of M’soft’s turf while Longhorn’s release date keeps slipping then you’ll find that word of mouth will cause more support for the Apple OS. And Apple’s shareholders will cry all the way to the bank.
It’s not the end of the world, it’s just a brave new beginning. Apple users have to be brave as well. There”ll be no room for gutless wonders, it’s all a matter of holding onto your hats and hanging on for the ride.
As a business teacher I used to use Apple as a case study. In another year or so I’ll be doing it again. Yeehaa, let’s ride that steer.
“This rate of change is too rapid. People will stop purchasing if they think that whatever it is they’re buying is going to be out of date in a short period of time.”
What rubbish! If each iteration of OSX is better than the last then everyone is happy and will buy. If you were on the first version of OSX you would still be better off than using Windows. There is no requirement to upgrade with every version.
Ooooh slow down Mr Apple, we can’t keep up. Ehhh?
bikersrule: sadly a lot of those comments yesterday (undoubtedly some of them were trolls..) are now being quoted in the press.
What a lot of bollocks we are going to read in the next days: “Mac faithful set to abandon ship…” Oh yeah??
Do you think it is just a coincidence that Apple is changing its spots (PowerPC to Intel) and the next version of OS X is called “Leopard”.
We just heard that OS X “Tiger” was essentially finished. Will “Leopard” be the first “Intel-ready” or dual-processor capable version of OS X?
Will this run on my just purchased 20″ G5 iMac? It won’t be for Intel only will it?
think about if longhorn was a flop this could kill microsoft by releasing it onto pcs and is apple going to liscense it out to other companies? and rembemer it could very well be released in 2007
Here’s the thing:
So long as my Mac looks like a Mac when I start it up, and looks as good as my current G5 when I take it out of its box, then I really don’t care if its being powered by IBM’s PowerPC, Intel’s Pentium or a troupe of highly disciplined, overworked gerbils.
After all, if I undo my current machine – which I only ever do to chuck some more RAM in or maybe upgrade the video card (hardly everyday tasks) – all I see is two massive heatsink covers that say G5. If it wasn’t for Apple’s System Profiler, I wouldn’t have a clue what was under there and I suspect that 95% of people don’t even care.
Randy:
If Leopard ships in early 2007 and the hardware migration isn’t complete until late 2007, it’s fair to say that Leopard will probably support all G5 Macintosh systems and many latterday (1 GHz+) G4 systems.
And I still believe that, between now and late 2007, Apple will ship a system based on IBM’s 970MP and probably another generation as well, whilst laptops might still see Freescale technology before too long.
Gog:
Tiger shipped in April 2005. Leopard might ship in January 2007. That’s nearly two years.
I would like to make mention of something….
With Apple selling their 2,000,000 copy of Tiger, at an average of $100/per…the take on that is $2 billion, minus the cost of a box and a cd. I believe that they expect to double that in the next year; an extra $4 billion plus in the war chest. Steve is going to need it to help him through this transition of slow power pc sales. No one should want to buy a power pc machine unless they absolutly HAVE TO. The minuite the developer decides not to check both boxes, (to make a univeral binary to run on both intel and PPC) your G3, G4, G5 just became obsolite. (all at the whim of the developer, or by a push from Apple.) Picture this: take your brand new dual G5 that you just bought, go a year or so in the future, (Although you are probably safe for a while longer as long as you only use main stream apps.) put it (your new G5) in a coffin and shut the lid. (Remeber OS9) It could also be used as a boat anchor as well, but don’t plan on selling it on ebay, where Apple prices have always been strong on ebay, with this elimination of the “G” series, I expect Apple ebay prices to tank. (Another reason for this is that the Apple community historically wants the latest and greatest thing on the market, and people who buy off ebay have the same mentality, they are just on a delay cycle, usually because of cost; and anyone with any forthought will not want to purchase an obsolite machine – even if it is only 6mths-1year old.)
I have gotten so off-topic from where I wanted to be….the point I wanted to make is this….
Based on the figures above on how much is being made for apple on every OS release, it is probably at least 100 fold when MS releases an OS release. This is significant. Think about how much money has been lost by the perpetual delays of Longhorn. This is a significant hit to MS’s bottom line – I would guess at least 100-250 BILLION. If Steve was in charge at MS, (first this situation would have never happened) entire departments would have been fired – and with good reason. It just goes to show the severe inadequacies and shortfalls of the empire that is MS. (They are just as delayed on thier CRM product.)
2 million x $100 = 200 million dollars.
Spencer,
2 million times $100 is $200 million not $2 billion. Just wanted to let you know.
Anybody buying a Mac in the next year???????
Why would anybody now upgrade to Tiger?????
Or buy any Mac software????